Costs and Benefits of Building Green

Definitions of sustainability range from broad concepts that incorporate all aspects of sustainability to narrow definitions focused on one specific sustainable feature, such as recycled content materials or energy efficiency. The American Society of Civil Engineers defines sustainable development as “...the challenge of meeting human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future development.” [1] What, then, constitutes ‘greenness’? Sustainable construction is a philosophy and an integrated design process, not a building style. The definition of ‘what is green’ varies according to the source, and may be subjective – for the purposes of this paper (while acknowledging that certification methodologies have flaws and continue to evolve), the US Green Building Council criteria will be assumed to best define a green building.